Get Better at Getting Better

by Chandramouli Venkatesan

The important thing is to use that opportunity as a passenger to be able to develop the pilot’s view. There are a few things you can do for that: Firstly, listen carefully to what senior managers articulate as important for the company to move ahead. Then evaluate whether your agenda is aligned to those priorities or whether you are like a squirrel, burrowing away on an unimportant agenda. How can you link what you are doing to the company’s priorities? Second, when things relevant to your work are being discussed, listen to how the same is being spoken about, which words are used, how it is articulated. Then ask yourself, if you had spoken on the same issue, how would it have been different? The two different articulations would probably reveal the difference of the view from the bus and from the plane. It is about the same topic, but spoken by people who are looking at it from different planes. What would it take for you to articulate your work, your agenda and your issues in the same way your boss and other seniors do?